This invention pertains to the field of safety enclosures and/or covers for electrical outlet assemblies and specifically to protective devices designed to prevent or impede an infant or small child from touching an electrical outlet and/or inserting or removing a plug from an outlet.
Electrical shock is a major cause of accidental injury and death to small children. Most indoor areas frequented by children such as homes and schools have numerous electrical outlets within reach of even the smallest child. This dangerous condition is well known. Numerous prior art devices have been proposed or are commercially available which are directed to preventing a child from touching the sockets in an outlet assembly or preventing a child from inserting or removing an electrical plug in or from a socket. Despite the proliferation of proposed solutions, no such device or group of devices has achieved wide acceptance and the hazardous condition remains today. The reasons that prior art solutions to this problem have not gained public acceptance relate to ease of use, cost and effectiveness. A complex device which is cumbersome to use will not gain public acceptance regardless of its effectiveness or cost. With typical living quarters for families with children having thirty to one hundred outlets and a plurality of appliances being used frequently in an area with a limited number of outlets, such as a kitchen, ease of use and cost are important criteria for acceptance. A review of the commercially available products and prior patent art shows that the most effective devices are also the most costly, the most cumbersome to use and the least available commercially. The present invention is directed to a solution to this long standing serious problem.
Another serious limitation of prior art devices is that they are designed almost exclusively for the conventional duplex outlet. Today, arrays or banks of four to six sockets are common in outlet assemblies in kitchens, home entertainment rooms and home computer rooms. Arrays or banks of six to twelve sockets are common in home workshops.
The prior patent art is summarized in U.S. Pat. No. 4,605,817 which discloses a safety cover for electrical outlets including plug retention in the outlet. What the prior art fails to disclose is a simple, easily installed and economical enclosure which serves the dual protective goals of preventing a child from touching an electrical outlet either with a finger or with a conductive instrumentality and preventing a child from inserting or removing a plug in or from the outlet, while still permitting the frequent insertion and removal of plugs by adults. It also fails to disclose a design which is adaptable to electrical outlet assemblies having a wide range of shapes and a large number of sockets.
It is the principal object of the present invention to provide an inexpensive protective enclosure for an electrical outlet which is easily installed and removed, and which is easy to use for adults, but which is essentially inoperative by small children.
Another object is to provide a protective enclosure which is simple in construction, while providing a reasonably safe level of protection for children.
Yet another object is to provide a protective enclosure which has manually operable closure elements which require adult dexterity and are resistant to the tampering of children such that the probability of a child defeating the safety feature is extremely low.
It is further object of the invention to provide a protective enclosure which fits over standard electrical outlet assemblies, requiring no modification thereof, and which can remain in place whether or not the outlet is in use and whether the use is continuing or intermittent.
It is still a further object of the invention to provide a protective enclosure whose basic design and principle of operation is readily adaptable to electrical outlet assemblies having any number of sockets in one junction box or housing.